The present invention broadly relates to a new and improved construction of apparatus for arranging cross-wound packages upon an auxiliary transport belt.
In its more specific aspects, the present invention relates to a new and improved apparatus for arranging cross-wound packages, which have been wound upon a spinning machine, upon an auxiliary transport belt forming an extension or prolongation of a main transport belt which extends longitudinally of the spinning machine and serves to carry away the cross-wound packages. The start of the transport path provided by the auxiliary transport belt adjoins the end of the transport path provided by the main transport belt. The lengthwise or longitudinal axes of the cross-wound packages extend parallel to their direction of movement during transport of the cross-wound packages upon the transport belts.
While the description to follow, as a matter of convenience, refers to the handling of cross-wound packages, obviously other types of packages or the like can be conveniently handled, and therefore, the use of this term is not to be construed in a limiting sense in any way whatsoever, merely is to be viewed as an exemplary and desirable field of application for the inventive apparatus.
In an apparatus as known, for example, from German Pat. No. 2,842,432 for handling cross-wound packages, the cross-wound packages pass from a transport belt extending longitudinally of the spinning machine onto a second transport belt and thereafter fall from the latter into a transport container.
In an apparatus as disclosed, for example, in British Pat. No. 1,103,066, full packages removed from the spinning machine are lined-up upon a belt until a predetermined number of packages is present. Thereupon, a photocell/light beam combination operates a pusher which simultaneously pushes the packages into a container.
It is a disadvantage of these known arrangements that the cross-wound packages are allowed to fall, because then their outer thread windings can be damaged. The use of a transport belt which, in operation, slides beneath the full packages for fairly long periods of time, as disclosed in the above mentioned British Pat. No. 1,103,066, has proved particularly disadvantageous, since the thread layers in the case of cross-wound packages can entangle with one another, and thus, the threads can rupture. In particular, threads can thus slip or slide over the edge of the cross-wound package, so that instead of lying on the side surfaces of the cross-wound packages, they lie on an end surface thereof. Consequently, unwinding of the cross-wound packages upon appropriate textile machines suitable for this purpose is made much more difficult or even rendered impossible during further processing of the yarn or thread of such cross-wound packages. Presently, attempts are made to take the threads or the like directly from the cross-wound packages delivered from the spinning machines, in order to avoid any rewinding thereof for further processing such as, for example, during weaving or knitting. Accordingly, perfectly wound cross-wound packages are of considerable importance.